Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. 20 historic map sheets show this location, the earliest from 1906.
“The Judge Joseph Barker House is a historic residence in southern Washington County, Ohio, United States. Located along State Route 7 southwest of the community of Newport, it is a brick structure with a roof of metal, a foundation of sandstone, and other elements of wood and metal.”
Wikipedia article Judge Joseph Barker House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 39 National Register listings in Washington County · listed in 1979 · category: BUILDING · significant for EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT; ARCHITECTURE · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Washington County.
Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
The ground this property stands on, surveyed 96 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
An account from the chapter on Newport township, The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.
The drowning of Charles Haskell is perhaps the most remarkable and the saddest case of this kind on record. Charles Haskell was, at the time of his tragic death, a respected citizen and a prominent member of the Baptist church. He resided near the river where he had his store. Saturday, July 23, 1831, he observed that some boats that he had secured to the Ohio shore were being blown by the wind towards the Virginia side.
The chapter on Newport Township in History of Washington County, Ohio, published 1881 names Newport. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
The dividing ridge between the Little Muskingum and Ohio is made up of an exceedingly elevated line of vertebrated hills frequently penetrated by the deep and narrow valleys of small streams which are gradually eroding their limiting hills, thus giving these rugged barriers a weird and romantic beauty which cannot fail to be appreciated by the passing traveller. A birds-eye view of the township as thus shaped, gives a grand view of an intricate labyrinth of natural beauty which no art of man could enhance. The whole surface is but a constant continuity of mountainous hills. One of the more prominent of these overlooks the Ohio between the village of Newport and Newell's run. This precipitous height is called Mt. Dudley after Dudley Woodbridge. On aclear day, it is said that the distant city of Marietta is visible from the top of this elevation. When Herman Blennerhassett sought for a suitable site for the proposed palace, he visited this hill in company with Dudley Woodbridge, who was desirous that Mr. Blennerhassett locate on its slope. It is related that while the party was about half way up the ascent, Mr. Blennerhassett becoming fatigued, sent his servant to the top to see if he could see Marietta. The servant reported that the city was not to be seen. Mr. Blennerhassett never ascended Mt. Dudley, and his subsequent purchase of Backus' island ended the prospect of a palace on this the most prominent elevation in Newport township.
Passage source: History of Washington County, Ohio, published 1881.
The valleys of the Ohio and Little Muskingum mark the course of the most extended areas of level ground. In general these valleys are quite narrow, and they soon lose themselves in surrounding hills, which like walls, hem them in on either side. Especially is this the case in the Narrows just below Newport village, where the course of the Ohio is straightened and narrowly confined by opposing hills in Ohio and West Virginia.
Passage source: History of Washington County, Ohio, published 1881.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Newport Township - 23,474 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 41 fires within 5 miles of Barker, Judge Joseph, Jr., House between 1992 and 2020, burning about 217 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 4 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 14 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 8 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Natural | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 September 2007 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | West Virginia Division of Forestry | not named |
| 30 August 2012 | Smoking | under an acre | West Virginia Division of Forestry | SOUTH PLEASANTS HIGHWAY - CYTEC |
| 30 August 2012 | Smoking | under an acre | West Virginia Division of Forestry | SOUTH PLEASANTS HIGHWAY - MON POWER |
| 10 July 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Wayne National Forest | SEVEN |
| 8 May 2007 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Wayne National Forest | KINDERHOOK |
| 7 April 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 4.0 acres | West Virginia Division of Forestry | MCELROY RUN |
| 3 April 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wayne National Forest | MT. PISGAH |
| 3 April 1995 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | West Virginia Division of Forestry | LIMESTONE RIDGE |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 297 specimens collected within 10 miles of Barker, Judge Joseph, Jr., House between 1909 and 1975: 251 Animalia, 29 Fungi, 17 Plantae. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by Albert Hazen Wright, Albert Wright, Allison W Cusick; Marilyn Ortt and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.
| Image | Species | Year | Collected by | Where, as recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Dryopteris carthusiana (Vill.) H.P.Fuchs | 1941 | Meddles, O.; Steele, M. | Millwood Twp. From rich woods (lilly), along Putney Ridge between Quaker City and Salesville. |
 | Puccinia dayi Clinton | 1909 | Bonner C. M. | Pleasants Co. |
| Endasys subclavatus (Say, 1835) | 1928 | W.V. Balduf | ||
 | Scambus pterophori (Ashmead, 1890) | 1928 | W.V. Balduf | |
 | Vulgichneumon brevicinctor (Say, 1825) | 1928 | W.V. Balduf | |
 | Cyprinella spiloptera (Cope, 1867) | 1929 | MB Trautman | Little Muskingum River, northeastern Marietta Twp |
 | Cyprinella whipplei Girard, 1856 | 1929 | Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Walker, W. H. (W. Harrington) | Little Muskingum River, near Hune Covered Bridge, south of Wingett Run OH, NE Lawrence Township |
 | Etheostoma blennioides Rafinesque, 1819 | 1929 | Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Walker, W. H. (W. Harrington) | Little Muskingum River, near Hune Covered Bridge, south of Wingett Run OH, NE Lawrence Township |
 | Luxilus chrysocephalus Rafinesque, 1820 | 1929 | MB Trautman | Little Muskingum River, northeastern Marietta Twp |
 | Micropterus punctulatus (Rafinesque, 1819) | 1929 | Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Walker, W. H. (W. Harrington) | Little Muskingum River, near Hune Covered Bridge, south of Wingett Run OH, NE Lawrence Township |
 | Notropis atherinoides Rafinesque, 1818 | 1929 | MB Trautman | Little Muskingum River, northeastern Marietta Twp |
 | Notropis deliciosus (Girard, 1856) | 1929 | Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Walker, W. H. (W. Harrington) | Little Muskingum River, within Lawrence township, near Newport, Lawrence township |
All 297 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Newport, the town this property stands in, in 9 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 5 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 1 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Newport | $5,000 | Several trees were blown down. |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Newport | $3,000 | no account filed |
| July 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Newport | $2,000 | Several trees were blown down along State Route 339 near Barlow. |
| February 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Newport | $100 | A tree was blown down onto State Route 550 near the Barlow Township. |
| June 2025 | Flash Flood | Newport | - | In Newport, South Fork South Branch of Wolf Creek exceeded its banks and flooded the intersection of State Routes 550 and 339. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Newport | - | Large branches were knocked down. |
| April 2015 | Hail | Lower Newport | - | no account filed |
| July 2011 | Hail | Newport | - | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Hail | Newport | - | no account filed |
United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by geocoding the centre of Newport, because the National Register records a descriptive location rather than a street address, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
When this property was proposed for the National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is, and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain. It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s typewriter's.
roof is covered in metal sheeting, with a small patch of corrugated tin. These are decorative half elliptical fanlights. One of these windows, earlier addition. The third addition, is a recent modern cement block con- XALTERED attached to the main building is a metal roof.There is a central doorway, There are two windows in the upper story,and a central on the lower story. two windows.The western side of the addition has a single 2/2 light window -
his son, Joseph Barker, Jr., and stands among the few remaining examples of Barker's work in the area. of his work in the area. fourteen, to work with his father at the carpenter's trade. He then worked as In 1789 he married and migrated to Marietta. He built houses there, and planned was Harman Blennerhassett. For his services in the Indian War, he received a lands, on which the house is built. I. T. Frary, the preeminent historian of early Ohio architecture, described Barker as "a man' of superior ability as a builder and in addition possessed a knowledge of for some of the finest Federal style buildings in Marietta, Ohio's first permanent Blennerhassett Mansion and the Samuel Hildreth House. Joseph Barker, Jr.
was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and occupied the house Lock and Dam installation. 15001599 1600-1699 COMMERCE EDUCATION THEATER CONSERVATION POLITICS/GOVERNMENT PERIOD LITERATURE SCULPTURE AGRICULTURE 1400-1499 ART X.EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT .RELIGION .ECONOMICS .COMMUNICATIONS XARCHITECTURE INDUSTRY .SOCIAL/HUMANITARIAN 1789 and helped build many of the distinguished houses there.The Col.Joseph Barker meeting house at New Boston. MILITARY -ENGINEERING _PHILOSOPHY grant of one hundred acres of land in the Donation Tract of the Ohio Land Company Col.Joseph Barker is one of Ohio's earliest master builders.He came to Marietta in carpenter in New Ipswich.In 1788 he worked as a journeyman carpenter on the second was Mary Ann Shippen. .1900 -.LAW _COMMUNITY PLANNING Col.
Joseph Barker (1765-1843) In 1774 his family moved to Amherst, New Hampshire, where he joined them, wner until his death in 1859.
The whole case file for this property - 3,798 words, 23 pages, reproduced complete.
Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 79001979, 23 pages, held by the National Archives in Record Group 79. See the catalogue record.
Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Hune Covered Bridge | 7.1 miles | 1976 |
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 79001979 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| Washington County | All 39 listed properties in this county. |
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